Tost said Red Bull will only be looking for a driver with the ‘wow-effect’ to replace Webber, so 2013 could be too soon for Australian Ricciardo,
or the French rookie Vergne

Ricciardo and Vergne better to start study this then:

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Fisichella did a 'wow-effect' in Spa 2009 driving Force India to P2 after Kimi. Then he went to Ferrari to spoil his reputation and haven't been driving in F1 after 2009.

I'm writing a feature this avo and I hope you guys agree with me on this - pay drivers nowadays are more 'nationalistic' pay drivers. Ie, like Perez, Petrov, Maldonado - they are being used to represent a country rather than their own personal glory

phil1993 wrote:I'm writing a feature this avo and I hope you guys agree with me on this - pay drivers nowadays are more 'nationalistic' pay drivers. Ie, like Perez, Petrov, Maldonado - they are being used to represent a country rather than their own personal glory

He might not have been a frontrunner in recent years, but his presence on the grid has been wonderful.

I'm afraid Petrov has only been given the seat because of the Russian GP coming up. I hope Trulli is able to find a position in a top team like Lotus, McLaren, or Ferrari like Giancarlo Fisichella did. His experience is invaluable.

I disagree with you guys. Trulli's F1 career is behind him, it has been quite obvious in his two-year spell at Lotus/Caterham. He had been in F1 since 1997 and has driven for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault, Toyota, Caterham... I would say he peaked around 2004-2005, with strings of podiums, good results and a well-deserved Monaco GP victory (I reckon he was the net leader anyway when his opponents eliminated themselves). Overall it seems he never quite managed to put a whole season together, being a consistently excellent qualifier but not always finding the same speed in the actual races. Anyway, you gotta hang up the keys at some point... when you're known as a good qualifier and outqualified 16-2 by your teammate over a whole season, get a clue. Jarno needed a bit of help on that one but he eventually did.

As for the choice of Petrov... let's just assume they needed the money and couldn't afford Sutil. Obviously I'm not a fan but the guy definitely has some speed... albeit inconsistently. A bit of a gamble, let's hope for the sake of the team that he doesn't cost them more money for repairs than his sponsorship brings.

Really... Fangio? isn't that a bit too far? I mean Vettel has done great things at his young age, but is he now an equivalent of a 5-time world champion, who was racing at a time when driving an F1 car was the closest thing to committing suicide?

I'm not taking anything away from Seb. It takes skill to milk the most out of what you got, and he has succeeded in doing so, besides the fact that he's such a lovable guy, top bloke. But comparing him to Fangio, who was famously idolized by Ayrton Senna (and that's saying something), is just pushing it in my honest opinion.